2023-08-23 00:11:07
The blue of a lake is relaxing, but the same color in the sky transmits a sensation of immensity and in the depth of the oceans it appeals to the unknown. The diversity of the palette that nature offers is prodigious. Only great photographers, like those of ‘National Geographic’, are capable of capturing the chromatic richness of ecosystems. Such diversity can be seen in the ‘Colors of the world’ exhibition, an exhibition that brings together 63 snapshots and can be seen until October 29 at CaixaForum Zaragoza.
Fortunately, daily life goes beyond the grayish darkness that stains the panorama in large cities. Outside the hustle and bustle of the cities, the eye is recreated and rests in a beautiful kaleidoscope of colors. From the misty blues of morning to the vivid purples and reds of sunset, this exhibition encourages us to discover that color is everywhere, even if it sometimes goes unnoticed by our eyes. Each area of the exhibition is dedicated to a color, its meaning, its qualities and its symbolism over time.
National Geographic photographers such as Joel Sartore, Steve McCurry, Michael Nichols, Lynn Johnson, Jodi Cobb, Paul Nicklen and Frans Lanting participate in the show. His cameras have captured the essence of landscapes, cultures and traditions from around the globe, from Papua New Guinea to India, passing through Italy, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chile or the United States.
Some women protect themselves from the sun with hats while collecting clover for the cattle. In the background you can see a Hadrami fortified compound. Wai Hadhramaut, Republic of Yemen. ©Steve McCurry/National Geographic.
Man has been seduced by colors since ancient times. One of the first to be sought was Tyrian purple, which fascinated the ancient Phoenicians and was extracted from the glands of snails from the Mediterranean Sea. The production costs were so high that only a very lucky few could afford to have a wardrobe with that dye, which forever generated a symbolism around this color, also called ‘royal purple’.
The language of colors is not the same in all places. If in India and Japan red means purity, in Africa it is used as a sign of mourning, while in other countries it is identified with power and strength. This variety is also produced with yellow, which connotes both joy and warmth and relaxation. In turn, it can symbolize the intellect, since yellow is the color of enlightenment.
Twilight on the Zambezi River
Orange, an expression of warmth, beautifies the twilight, as can be seen in the image of some wildebeest roaming near the Zambezi River. In other photographs, this color unleashes its fireworks on the Nyiragongo volcano, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and permeates the robe of a Cambodian Buddhist monk with calm.
“We all perceive life differently based on what our eyes see. Our gaze is capable of perceiving a million colors. But if you were born in jungle or forested areas, you can see much more green than those of us who have grown up in cities, and the same happens with those who are used to the blue of the sea or arid desert climates, “says the head of science exhibitions of the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation, Javier Hidalgo.
A white-furred harp seal rests under a twilight sky in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada. Brian J Skerry
Nothing is more certain than geography determines our gaze, although certain cultural patterns are repeated. Here and almost everywhere green means renewal and manifestation of life. The first buds of a plant speak of the rebirth that follows winter. Different shades of green can be appreciated in the exhibition: the splendor around a farmer who harvests the first tea of the year in Japan, the one that vibrates in the fluttering of a butterfly in Bolivia or the lurid green of a Guatemalan quetzal, a bird of showy plumage. But the absence of green is so noticeable that the desolation of a woman wandering through a field devastated by monsoon rains in a state of India overwhelms.
A goby rests on a giant clam on the seabed. Indonesia, Pacific Ocean. © David Doublet / National Geographic.
Representation of the ethereal, the immaculate and the pristine, white is the color of beginnings and endings, of nothing and everything. It is achromatic and contains all the colors of the electromagnetic spectrum. Wherever there is a bride, a doctor, a judoka, there will be white in the form of a dress, robe or kimono. In the show, white shines brightly in the delicate plumage of the king penguin at South Georgia. But the whiteness can also be overwhelming to the point of blinding the eye, as it does in the Bonneville salt desert in the United States.
We see the radiation emitted by objects, the blue of a sapphire, the green of the Amazon fronds, the ocher and yellow of the Sahara… “It is through the mixture of colors that we perceive the world,” says the curator of the exhibition, Ruben Hard. For tastes, the colors.
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